Determination of phenolic compounds in surface waters using high-performance liquid chromatography and molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction

An effective and reliable analytical method based on molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MI-SPE) and high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detector was developed to simultaneously determine four phenolic compounds: bisphenol A, 2-phenylphenol, tert-octylphenol and nonylphenol. A molecularly imprinted polymer that can selectively recognize bisphenol A and alkylphenols was developed. A bulk polymerization method using bisphenol A as a template, acrylamide as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the cross-linking agent, acetonitrile as porogenic solvent and 1,1'-azobis(cyclohexanecarbonitrile) as initiator was applied. This polymer was applied for isolation and preconcentration of these phenolic Panew River and Turawa Lake). Bisphenol A and 2-phenylphenol were found in all water samples. Concentration of these compounds ranged 0.011-1.046 [ig/mL and 0.020-0.410 [ig/mL, respectively. Nonylphenol and tert-octylphenol were not detected in any samples.